Wiring harnesses are employed, for example, in appliances such as dishwashers and washing machines, to collect and guide individual electrical wires between connection points. Such harnesses, for example, may be terminated on one or both ends by a releasable electrical connector or other connector system to permit parallel, multipoint connections for individual wires of the harness.
Although the conductors of the individual wires in the harness are each insulated, often the wires of the harness may be further protected by a tubular harness insulator positioned around the wires. One type of tubular harness insulator provides a tubular loom that is cut (split) longitudinally through one tube wall so that the loom may be installed on the wires, the latter passing through the cut eliminating the need to thread the wires through the tubular loom. Frequently the tubular loom has corrugated walls formed of annular concave and convex sections such as improves the flexibility of the tubular loom while nevertheless providing it with resistance to radial compression or crushing.
The tubular loom thus serves to collect the individual wires of the harness and to provide mechanical protection to those wires, for example, against getting pinched or caught in other mechanisms of the appliance or similar device.
While generally the resilience of the split tubular loom serves to hold together the edges of the tube on either side of the split, it is known in the art to provide additional mechanisms for holding the tube walls closed, for example, as taught in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,967,194 and 5,905,231 both incorporated by reference. Reduction of the flexibility of the split loom tube may be provided by installing a rigid element along the split that passes through the tube that engages opposite edges of that cut, for example, as taught by U.S. Pat. No. 9,252,576.